vimothy
yurp
completely agree about russian power historically. and russia is a globally significant power today, despite what maybe many people think, and its geography determines its interest in the middle east. I was just making the point, somewhat counter intuitive perhaps, that despite the kind of quote-unquote mainstream narrative, it's not solely trump who was the confront china instead of russia guy. obama also moved in this direction. like trump he was elected to end the "forever wars" in the middle east, and one of the ways he did this, or tried to do this, was by leaning on russia, in Syria, in the iran nuclear deal, effectively increasing russian influence in the middle east. so theres a certain amount of continuity there. trump isnt the rupture, at least in fp terms, that he is sometimes portrayed as.